The 2023 Winter Meetings have come and gone with little to show for it for the Chicago White Sox. In fact, the White Sox haven’t been as active in the past couple of seasons at the winter meetings. General Manager Chris Getz could be gearing up for a big showing. Or he could stay quiet and choose to build the team without much fanfare like his predecessor, Rich Hahn, did before.
However, with the Winter Meetings now in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look at the top three deals to come out of winter meetings of the past for the White Sox. After some careful consideration and review of past notes, there were three winter meetings that really helped the White Sox develop and become winners. Here is a look at those three winter meetings.
3 Winter Meetings deals that changed the White Sox forever
Let’s get into the way back machine and go to the winter meetings of December 1957 which were held in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. This was one of the most interesting winter meetings in White Sox history. The Sox traded away one of the most well-known and well-liked players in Sox history, left fielder Minnie Minoso. They sent Minoso and Fred Hatfield to the then-Cleveland Indians for two players. Those two players were Al Smith, an outfielder, and pitcher Early Wynn.
In Wynn, the trade brought a future Hall of Famer to the Sox. Two years after the trade, Wynn captured the Cy Young award and the Sox ended up getting to the World Series where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Minoso, a future Hall of Famer, would find his way back to the White Sox just a couple of years later.
Speaking of the World Series, there was a trade that helped the Chicago White Sox earn a trip to the World Series in 2005. The trade, which took place at the winter meetings in December of 2004 in Anaheim California, was one that would be key to the White Sox success in the near term and make them World Champions. The Sox packed up and sent left fielder Carlos Lee to the Milwaukee Brewers for two players, relief pitcher Luis Vizcaino and outfielder Scott Podsednik.
The White Sox got their money’s worth out of Podsednik as he was able to not only make the All-Star team in 2005 but also racked up 59 steals and had the famed walk-off home run in the White Sox second game of the World Series against the Houston Astros where they went on to win their last championship.
That may have been the Sox last best year.
Finally, in December of 2016, the Chicago White Sox struck a huge deal with the Boston Red Sox that helped shape some of what we are seeing with the White Sox today. The news out of National Harbor in Maryland was big as the White Sox traded arguably their best player at the time, pitcher Chris Sale, for four interesting prospects. Those prospects included lesser-known guys like pitcher Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Basabe Jr., as well as guys we know today, pitcher Michael Kopech and top prospect third baseman Yoan Moncada.
But the White Sox did not stop there, as they made a trade with the Washington Nationals that would net them Reynaldo Lopez, Dane Dunning, and Lucas Giolito. We all know what Giolito was able to do for the White Sox as he made the greatest impact out of this trade. They traded away Adam Eaton for all of these players.